In Faith
by jtav
Summary: Asami isn't sure who she can trust. Mako would like it to be him.


Varrick put his arm around Asami's shoulder, and she fought the urge to cringe. She liked touching and hugging he people she loved: Korra, Bolin, Mako. Her father, before… everything. They had given her the choice of how close she wanted to be and when. Varrick was like a greedy puppy, treating strangers as if they were his new best friends. She took a deep breath. _I need him. Future industries needs him._

"Just you wait, partner! I'm going to take Future Industries and rebuild it better that it was before." He led her through the twisting maze of the movie studio, past prop men and a production assistant pushing a row of costumes. "I've already got a few dozen ideas. For starters, we're going to cut back on that inefficient charity work you're doing. It's not targeted enough to get in good with the politicians or as marketing. And what good is philanthropy if it doesn't do something for you?"

"Helping people?"

"I am helping. I'm helping you help me make money." They stepped onto the set and he gestured around the room. "This is going to do as much to change the world as the Satomobile. Why don't you watch some of the filming while I go brainstorm with Zhu Li?" And with that, he scurried off.

Asami sighed again. She did need Varrick, but she could wish that she didn't. When she had imagined inheriting Future Industries, it was after a decade or two of working her way up the ranks of a company she had helped make thrive with her father still there to advise her. She would help non-benders and everyone else with both technological innovation and good works. Instead, she had this. Her mother would be so proud.

Someone ran up behind her. "Asami?" Mako sounded out of breath. She turned to find him out of uniform and red-faced, his hair spiking in more directions than usual. "Can I talk to you?" His gaze darted around. "In private?"

"Um, sure?" She took him by the hand and led him back into the hallway. This close, he looked nothing like the dashing pro-bender she had once had a crush on. His face was lined and he looked like he hadn't slept all night. A knife pierced Asami's heart. He hadn't had an easy time of it, either. Korra breaking up with him, the bombing, the world on the brink of war. She had leaned on him too, casting about for any rock to keep from drowning in despair. But who was looking out for him while he was trying to save his corner of the world? "Are you okay?"

"I—this was easier in my head." He stepped back and ran his fingers through his hair. "I think I know who's been sabotaging your shipments." His voice dropped to a whisper. "It was Varrick."

"Varrick?" she repeated. For a long moment she simply couldn't process the words. Then her brain was springing to life as if it were a race car she was testing. It couldn't be Varrick. He was greedy and unethical, but this was criminal. Evil. "He sank his own ships?" People could have been killed.

"I know it sounds crazy, but the bombing was with the same kind of timed explosives as they use on the mover. It's proprietary to Varrick Global Industries."

"Do you realize what you're saying?" Asami struggled to keep her own voice at a whisper as something between anger and panic filled her. "Varrick is my business partner. He may be slimy, but he's all I have. I trust him to—"

Asami stopped. She had trusted her father, too, preferring to believe all sorts of things about Korra, Tenzin, and the police right up until her father had handed her that glove. All because her father had been all she had. _What if it is true?_ whispered a dark and traitorous voice. _Those ships are nothing compared to what Varrick gains with a controlling interest in Future Industries. The more desperate you were, the stronger his negotiating position became._

It was impossible. It was disturbingly plausible. Asami's mind spun with possibilities farcical and diabolic. "Do you have any proof?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on it." He took her hand. "I know I was awful to you before, but please trust me. I will find a way to save Future Industries."

He looked exhausted and terribly earnest. The pro-bender had dazzled her, but this was the boy she had fallen in love with, who would do anything to help someone he cared about. Asami stepped closer and kissed him slowly. "I don't know what to think, but I think you're smart and you're trying to help me. If this is true…" If this was true, she had damned Future Industries and helped a bomber. "Do you want to get some lunch? Maybe a good stiff drink?"

Some of the exhaustion faded from his eyes. "That went better than I expected. You know what? A drink sounds great."

They stepped out into the sunlight. The street was bustling with midday traffic. Lovers talking in low voices, children begging their parents for a toy they saw in a store window. Such normalcy seemed a world away from civil wars and failing companies. Maybe she should just enjoy it. Asami linked her arm with Mako's and gave him a tired smile.

A man in a rumpled suit and bearing a notepad pushed his way through the crowd. Asami bit back a groan. She had seen more of reporters and their thinly-veiled accusations over the last six months than she ever wanted to. Asami had hoped the storm would abate now that her father had been sentenced, but clearly she wasn't going to be that lucky. "Just keep walking," she whispered to Mako. "Maybe he'll give up."

"Ms. Sato? Mako?" The reporter crossed the distance to them with impressive speed. "Ryo Tenaba, _Republic City Sun_. I was wondering if you would care to comment on the _Star's_ story on you."

Mako frowned in confusion. "The _Star_? My brother is the one that cares about tabloids."

"So there is no truth to the rumors that you and Ms. Sato are back together and shockingly quickly after your breakup with Avatar Korra?" The questions were like ice bullets. "Is this just a rebound for you? Are you using Ms. Sato to fill the void in your broken heart? Is this what you really want?"

Mako looked like a catdeer caught in the headlights, and Asami found herself holding her breath. She had done her best to push them away, but those same questions flitted through her mind on nights she couldn't sleep. Mako had had to choose between them once before, and he had chosen Korra. Had he actually chosen Asami this time or was he merely going along with her because they were both lonely and desperate? She had been so desperate to be able to hold someone close, but she might only be opening herself up to more heartbreak.

Mako spluttered. "That's private!"

"So no comments on—"

"No comment."

The reporter smirked. "Well, then. I hope you two are very happy together." He walked off, whistling.

Asami's shoulders slumped. As foolish as it would have been, a small part of her had hoped for more. A ringing denunciation. A declaration of love. Something to silence those whispers.

"Asami?" Mako put his fingers under her chin and tilted it up to look her in the eye. "You don't believe anything the guy said, do you?"

She should tell him that of course she didn't and that she had complete faith in him. But it was so exhausting to always have a smile painted on and to tell everyone else that things were fine when they weren't. "I worry sometimes, after what happened before."

Mako blinked. He hadn't been expecting that answer, either. "I guess today is 'unpleasant truths' day, huh?" He rubbed the back of his neck, and when he spoke again his voice was slow and halting. "I do miss Korra. But what I really miss is how I thought our relationship was going to go. It was going to be exciting and we were going to stop bad guys together and, well you know. Other stuff. " His face turned red. "We never got that relationship. It seemed like we were snapping at each other every day even before all the stuff with Unalaq. We made each other into jerks. If I could have that relationship in my head, I'd take it. But what I really want is a, um, a partner, I guess. Someone I can talk to. You don't yell so I was hoping…"

Asami stared at him. It was the most she had ever heard him say at one time.

"Could you say something please? I know I was a jerk about the kiss and I just threw that Varrick stuff on you. But I just want someone I can actually be with. The exciting stuff, the boring stuff, the fighting. All of it."

Asami kissed him. It wasn't a love confession and she still wanted to believe he was wrong about Varrick, but she felt lighter then she had in months. His lips were soft and slightly chapped. Imperfect. This wouldn't be a storybook romance. They were two flawed people suffering from too much responsibility and heartbreak. But he was trying to help her and she was trying to comfort him. They couldn't go back to being the almost children who rubbed each other's noses, but maybe they could be partners. "About that lunch," she said when they finally broke apart.

Asami was filled with something like optimism as she stumbled through the door of Mako's apartment. The sake warmed her and made her problems feel like they belonged to someone else. She played idly with the fastenings on Mako's coat with one hand and ran her fingers over his chest with the other. "Do you have anything you need to do right now on can I stay a little longer?"

"I really should get back to work on Varr—oh." He smiled at her, the alcohol imbuing him with the same temporary indifference to the rest of the world. He smiled at her and reached for the buttons on her jacket. "You can stay."

From there, it was like riding a Satocycle. He unbuttoned her jacket with easy, practiced motions as Asami traced the familiar planes of his chest. The calluses on his fingers, the way he gasped when she bit at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. These things were as she remembered. His rough, maddening hands found her breasts under her shirt. "Tell me what you want," he whispered in her ear. "Anything you want and I'll—"

There was a sharp knock at the door. "Police!"

Asami and Mako sprung apart as if they had been electrocuted. Asami blinked in confusion. Police? Why would the police be here? Then the door was opening with a loud _crack_ and there stood a very irritated Chief Beifong flanked by the two detectives Mako didn't like. "Search his bedroom." She glared at Mako. "I expected better of you, kid. And put some clothes on."

Mako hastily did up his jacket. "What is this about, Chief?"

Chief Beifong pinched her nose and shook her head. "We got a call from a confidential informant saying he saw you with the explosives twenty minutes before the bomb at the cultural center went off."

"You think I did it?" Mako stared at her in disbelief. "Why would I do something like that? Whoever did that wanted to start a war. I lost Korra trying to stop it."

"Money," drawled one of the detectives as he twirled his mustache. "You've got expensive taste in girlfriends. That can't be cheap."

"Well, look what I found," said the other as he emerged from Mako's bedroom holding the explosive timer and a stack of yuan notes. "Just like the CI sad. I guess you did close this case after all, May-ko."

Time stopped. Asami was back in the underground factory as her father handed her the glove. What she was seeing couldn't be true, except she was seeing and hearing it. Mako wasn't the type to put people in danger like that. He had nearly ruined his career trying to solve the bombing. He was Team Avatar. "No," she whispered. "No. No. No."

One of the detectives forced Mako's hands behind his back. Mako looked up at Chief Beifong, pleading. "That isn't mine. Someone put it there. "

The detective laughed. "So it's a conspiracy theory now? Who would bother to frame you?"

"I don't—" Mako's eyes widened. "Varrick. He knew I was poking around and that I didn't think the Northern Water Tribe bombed the cultural center. He said that I should stop and that it would be a shame if I dragged Bolin and Asami down with me."

"Were there any witnesses to this conversation?"

"No, we were in his office." There was an edge of desperation to his voice now. "You have to believe me."

"I really wish I did, kid." Chief Beifong sighed. "Mako, you're under arrest for the bombing of the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center. You have the right to remain silent. Take him away."

Mako turned his head and his gaze locked with Asami's. "Please believe me. I would never do anything like this. I wouldn't hurt you again."

Before Asami could respond, the police had hustled Mako out the door. She collapsed against the wall. It was happening again. Someone she cared about accused of something monstrous. He had asked her to believe him, just as her father had asked her to believe him. Her father had kept lying right until he couldn't anymore. Who was to say Mako wasn't doing the same? Maybe everyone she cared about would betray her somehow or other. Maybe the best she could hope for was a Varrick who was only out for himself.

 _But if you really believed that, why did you join Team Avatar? A world like that isn't worth saving._

Asami stood and straightened her clothes. She had to trust someone. The alternative was to wall her heart up brick by brick until it withered from lack of use. The only question was who she would let close enough to break her heart. Mako had hurt her once, but out of thoughtlessness and cowardice, not cruelty. If he had just wanted money, he would have stayed with the Fire Ferrets like Bolin. Mako might break her heart tomorrow or the day after that. He might be wrong about Varrick. But he wouldn't do this.

The prison was a square, blocky building on the outskirts of the city. Asami took a deep breath. She had hoped she would never come here. Her father was here somewhere, stalking the halls like a restless spirit. Her hands shook. Mako wasn't her father. She wasn't a coward. She could do this.

Asami submitted to the search of her person and belongings with as much grace as she could muster. "May I see Mako please?"

The officer stared at her, but led her back to a warren of dirty cells. She found Mako sitting on the hard bed, his face buried in his hands. "Mako?" she breathed.

He looked at her. The expression on his face would stay with Asami forever: disbelief and unbridled happiness. "You came."

"Of course I did." She reached through the bars to take his hand. "I believe in you."

* * *

"You're going to make a great detective." Chief Beifong clapped Mako on the shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you, kid."

"It's not your fault. It's Varrick's." Mako looked pale and dazed. His gaze flicked from Asami to Bolin. "Did he really try to kidnap Raiko?"

"Yeah, he kind of did." Bolin said.

Mako shifted closer to Asami. "Thank you for everything. For believing in me and everything else." He kissed her on the cheek. "I can't imagine what the papers said about you."

"That I was proving that I supported terrorism after all. But I was right and they were wrong." She smiled at him. "Not only am I getting the contract granting Varrick control of Future Industries voided, my lawyers are going to be taking him for every yuan he has." It was over. It was finally over. Future Industries would survive and so would she. And she wouldn't be alone.

"Mako!" Korra's voice rang through the halls as she ran towards them. "I heard about everything and I missed you so much." She launched herself into Mako's arms and kissed him. Asami couldn't look away. It was brief and hard and electric. Everything Mako said he wanted. He relaxed into the kiss. Asami bit back a curse and dug her fingers into her palm. Mako might not be a criminal, but he could still break her heart in any of a thousand little ways. She had made the same mistake as last time. Idiot.

Mako put his hands on Korra's shoulders and pushed her away, gently but firmly. "Wow," he muttered. "I'm glad to see you too, but don't you remember our fight?"

"No," Korra said sheepishly. "I got swallowed by a dark spirit and my memory is kind of fuzzy. Was it a bad fight?"

Mako and Asami looked at each other. Korra had amnesia? Of all the… If Mako wanted to, he could pretend their fight had never happened. Try one more time to get the relationship in his head. By the look on his face, Mako knew that too. Asami took a deep breath and waited for the inevitable.

"It was…we broke up."

"Broke up?" Korra blinked at him. "Are you sure?"

"It was kind of hard to miss."

"What the—it doesn't matter. You can explain it to me on the way. I kind of need you guys to help me save the world again."

Later, Mako and Asami stood together on deck as the _Zhu Li_ cut through the water and towards Harmonic Convergence. Mako stared out at the waves. "If we survive this, I want to do right by you this time. More of that communication stuff I'm not very good at. Being the best boyfriend I can. If that's what you want."

"You don't want to try to make things work with Korra?" Asami asked softly. "I'm what you want this time?"

"You believed in me when nobody else did. Even Bolin." He put his hand over the top of hers. "I told you. I want a partner."


End file.
